Food Security Experts Warn Gaza Is at Critical Risk of Famine if Israel Doesn’t End Its Campaign 

Palestinians inspect the damage at a school sheltering displaced people, following an Israeli strike, in Jabalia refugee camp, in the northern Gaza Strip, May 12, 2025. (Reuters)
Palestinians inspect the damage at a school sheltering displaced people, following an Israeli strike, in Jabalia refugee camp, in the northern Gaza Strip, May 12, 2025. (Reuters)
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Food Security Experts Warn Gaza Is at Critical Risk of Famine if Israel Doesn’t End Its Campaign 

Palestinians inspect the damage at a school sheltering displaced people, following an Israeli strike, in Jabalia refugee camp, in the northern Gaza Strip, May 12, 2025. (Reuters)
Palestinians inspect the damage at a school sheltering displaced people, following an Israeli strike, in Jabalia refugee camp, in the northern Gaza Strip, May 12, 2025. (Reuters)

The Gaza Strip is at critical risk of famine if Israel doesn’t lift its blockade and stop its military campaign, food security experts said Monday.

Outright famine is the most likely scenario unless conditions change, according to findings by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a leading international authority on the severity of hunger crises.

Nearly a half million Palestinians are in “catastrophic” levels of hunger, meaning they face possible starvation, the report said, while another million are at “emergency” levels of hunger.

Israel has banned any food, shelter, medicine or other goods from entering the Palestinian territory for the past 10 weeks, even as it carries out waves of airstrikes and ground operations.

Gaza’s population of around 2.3 million people relies almost entirely on outside aid to survive, because Israel’s 19-month-old military campaign has wiped away most capacity to produce food inside the territory.

The office of Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, did not respond to a request for comment on the IPC report.

The army has said that enough assistance entered Gaza during a two-month ceasefire that Israel shattered in mid-March when it relaunched its military campaign.

Israel says the blockade aims to pressure Hamas to release the hostages it still holds.



Calm Reported in Syria's Sweida as Tribal Fighters Said to Withdraw

Bedouin and tribal gunmen keep a position during clashes with Druze fighters in Syria's southern city of Sweida. (Photo by OMAR HAJ KADOUR / AFP)
Bedouin and tribal gunmen keep a position during clashes with Druze fighters in Syria's southern city of Sweida. (Photo by OMAR HAJ KADOUR / AFP)
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Calm Reported in Syria's Sweida as Tribal Fighters Said to Withdraw

Bedouin and tribal gunmen keep a position during clashes with Druze fighters in Syria's southern city of Sweida. (Photo by OMAR HAJ KADOUR / AFP)
Bedouin and tribal gunmen keep a position during clashes with Druze fighters in Syria's southern city of Sweida. (Photo by OMAR HAJ KADOUR / AFP)

Residents reported calm in the Syrian city of Sweida on Sunday after the government declared that Bedouin fighters had withdrawn from the predominantly Druze city and the United States stepped up calls for an end to fighting.

There was no sound of gunfire on Sunday morning, according to a resident speaking from the city outskirts, while a Druze source in the region said there was calm in most areas.

The fighting began a week ago with clashes between Bedouin and Druze fighters.

The Syrian presidency had announced a new ceasefire early on Saturday but it quickly collapsed into renewed fighting.